In fact, Google's new play is the second time this year that a change to how Gmail works for consumers is actually a good thing for email marketers.

Gmail has begun loading images by default, a win for email marketers.

In case you missed it, here's the news: Earlier this month, Google explained that it was going to start caching images. Simply put: Gmail will copy images and host them on its own servers.

The announcement freaked out marketers, who wondered if this was the end of open tracking in email marketing.

For those who didn't know, email opens are tracked when an invisible pixel — an image — is downloaded or viewed in an email client. (Contactology also records an open when a subscriber clicks a link, even if images aren't loaded.)

Google's move to cache images would allow the service to start displaying images by default, rather than having users click "Display images below."

"We did this to protect you from unknown senders who might try to use images to compromise the security of your computer or mobile device," the company explained.

Blocking images, however, also blocked email service providers from tracking opens. That meant marketers had to hope that subscribers using Gmail chose to display images in a campaign. If not, not only would the open be unrecorded, but all the work to design an attractive campaign was wasted — and in poorly implemented designs, the message was lost.

Gmail accounts are being updated automatically to display images by default.

As this snippet of code shows, emails delivered to a Gmail inbox are now hosted on a Google server.

For Contactology customers, this change has three effects.

1) Unique open tracking for Gmail will be more representative and accurate.

2) The count of multiple opens of the same message by Gmail users will drop.

It's still early yet, but our analysis of Google’s new image caching feature tells us that the change is likely a net positive for email marketers. We've identified five reasons why the sky (still) isn't falling.

1) Your campaign reports will include better data. Once Gmail inboxes start loading images by default, campaign reports should see a nice lift in opens by Gmail users. More images loading means better data about who is seeing your email campaigns. There’s just nothing about better data that’s bad for marketers.

Even better, image loading will now extend to Gmail apps on smartphones. That change should help provide better open tracking on Android devices, which dominate the smartphone market but lag way behind Apple devices in terms of total opens.

2) Multiple opens are generally meaningless. Because Gmail will only access your images once to copy them, subsequent opens will not likely be counted, depending on your browser and other technical details. So what? If your email strategy or email ROI is based on winning multiple opens of the same message, you're probably doing it wrong.

Opens, especially the repeat variety, have always been a somewhat dubious metric upon which to hang your email strategy. Any email client with a preview pane (Apple Mail, for example) will register an open even if the user is just scrolling through messages, so multiple opens from a given user doesn’t necessarily equate to better engagement.

3) The number of campaigns affected is relatively small. As a percentage, the number of email actually opened in Gmail.com (as opposed to on a smartphone or desktop client) is a small percentage of the whole.

Image caching will likely affect the accuracy of geolocation reporting for users accessing their mail through Gmail.com. But, again, that's a relatively small number of total recipients for any given campaign. And when you stack the hit to geolocation tracking against the improvement in overall Gmail open tracking, the result will be a net positive for most marketers.

The relatively small number of users who actually use Gmail.com to read Gmail is a big reason we think all the hype over tabbed inboxes was overblown.

4) A Better Experience for Users Means More Design Options for You. Image blocking is like Kryptonite for email designers.

A better user experience in Gmail should help email designers create attractive designs, without having to worry about image blocking.

The best, most amazing designs can be useless if users don’t see images.

Google seems to be acknowledging — not thwarting — the efforts of email designers by creating a better user experience in Gmail.

While other email clients will still block images by default, Google’s change may launch a trend toward more image rendering across clients.

The benefit to email designers and creative types is obvious: HTML and CSS for email have always been a poor imitation of what's possible on a web page. Google's image loading may help bridge that divide a little.

5) Email Marketing Fundamentals Haven’t Changed. Nothing about Google’s image caching should affect a marketer's responsibility to create relevant messages that connect with subscribers. Whether images are served from your servers, Google's or Contactology's, your message has to resonate and be meaningful to your audience.

Rather than fret about Gmail's latest tweak, focus on the fundamental principles and your subscribers will reward you with better engagement.